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'It does scare me': New HIV strains highlight need for more testing, less stigma, says man living with virus

Research shows mutated HIV strains progress more quickly than expected

For an Indigenous man with HIV who is living in Saskatchewan, news of mutating strains of the virus circulating in the province came as a shock.

"It does scare me," said Cote First Nation resident Darryl Caldwell, who has been living with HIV for seven years.

His reserve is near the town of Kamsack as well as other neighbouring reserves see more than 10 times the national average of HIV, rates that were on his mind when he heard news about recently discovered immune resistant strains.

"So that's very disheartening, because a lot of the people from my community, a lot of my relatives, could be having this strain."

Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious disease specialist in Regina, said the mutated strains can explain some of what Saskatchewan physicians have been seeing on the ground recently.

Ordinarily, individuals with normal healthy immune systems infected with HIV might see their symptoms progress over five to 10 years to having end stage complications of HIV, or in other words, AIDS.